The All-Ohio Super 16 Showcase took place this past weekend in Columbus
and surrounding cities with a plethora of Ohio’s top talent taking part
in Jerry Watson’s annual hoopla. The two-day hoopfest featured some of the state’s elite teams, prospects, and players, and as usual, the cream rose to the top…

All-Ohio Super 16 Showcase Coverage

The All-Ohio Super 16 Showcase took place this past weekend in Columbus and surrounding cities with a plethora of Ohio’s top talent taking part in Jerry Watson’s annual hoopla.

The two-day hoopfest featured some of the state’s elite teams, prospects, and players, and as usual, the cream rose to the top.

All-Ohio nearly came up empty for the first time in quite awhile at the mid-May event, but the 17-and-under team saved the day by winning the championship in a hard-fought contest with the Millenium Fire. AOR was able to get the job done despite the absence of starters Vince Edwards (Middletown) and Evan Bailey (Massillon Jackson).

Red knocked out the Ohio Phenoms in the semis, which is one of Ohio’s better teams in that age group. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any 17U action this past weekend as we turned our focus strictly to 15/16U.

Watson’s group came away victorious in the 17U, but his 16-and-under and 15-and-under teams fell short in a quest to sweep the high school divisions.

What made matters worse, both losses came to growing rival the King James Shooting Stars. Dru Joyce’s organization was able to prove it was worthy of the state’s No. 1 ranking in each respective age group.

The weekend, however, got off to a bad start and almost got worse for the Shooting Stars. All-Ohio Red and King James faced off in the first pool play game of the weekend in the 16U division, and AOR was able to convincingly hand Glen Galemmo’s squad its first loss of the year, 52-36. Many of the basketball pontiffs, including us, were shocked by this outcome considering the immense talent on the King James’ roster.

Things nearly got worse when the Shooting Stars 15-and-under team were forced to overtime by a scrappy Atlanta Lakers team, however, the Nike sponsored boys were able to squeak by in the extra session. Lima CC point guard Xavier Simpson forced overtime with a 16-foot pull-up from the right wing in the closing seconds.

King James also has a second team in the 16U division, which is another good squad led by Josh Williams (Barberton), Derek Pardon (Cleveland VASJ) and Seth McCoy (Canal Winchester), but it also fell to defeat in pool play to an outstanding All-Ohio Black club. AOB was able to avenge a loss to King James (Love) suffered earlier in the spring.